Everything You Wanted to Know About the Breaking Bad Opera

"I'm really glad there's no Tuco. He freaks me out."

The word "opera" isn't usually followed by "cooking meth," "shooting people at point-blank range," or "television." Hell, "opera" and anything having to do with Breaking Bad in the slightest usually wouldn't find themselves in the same paragraph, and that's all about to change with a familiar cry of "YEAH, BITCH!" or two with an orchestra behind it.

When Dorothy Smith Jacobs found out she'd be playing the part of Jane in One World Symphony's production ofBreaking Bad – Ozymandias, the Breaking Bad opera, which just had its premiere Sunday, she immediately binge-watched all five seasons because she'd never seen a single episode of the show. "Once I started, I couldn't stop," she says. "I was addicted. I knew Breaking Bad was wildly popular, but I didn't know why until I started watching the show. It really consumed me. I was constantly thinking about the characters and what was going to happen next." She soon realized that the troubled world of Walter White wasn't the only thing she'd need to familiarize herself with before rehearsals began. The opera — an original work composed by Sung Jin Hong, One World Symphony's artistic director and conductor — follows the epic poem "Ozymandias" more loyally than it does the arc of Breaking Bad, and details the fall of a leader and his empire while telling the story of the sonnet through Breaking Bad's vibrant (and frequently vicious) characters. For Jacobs, one of the most validating aspects of being part of Breaking Bad – Ozymandias lies in the fact that One World Symphony gets to not only reinterpret the now-cult TV drama but contribute to its legacy and afterlife. Yeah, we get to see Jesse scream-sing "YEAH, BITCH!" a few times, but we get to watch Walter White redeem himself in an entirely different dimension, too. Throw in an absurdly talented orchestra and a handful of powerhouse voices — including Jacobs's — and you've got the reinvention of a modern classic that you never saw coming.

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ESQUIRE.COM: Breaking Bad – Ozymandias seems like an exciting and challenging opera. What was your reaction when you went through the libretto for the first time?

DOROTHY SMITH JACOBS: Initially, before we even got the musical score, all the cast members had to go on was the sonnet "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. When I began digging into the sonnet and really examining it, I got really excited because I felt like it described Breaking Bad and Walt's journey perfectly. There's one line in particular that makes Walt's face pop up in my mind, "Whose frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command..." And by the end of the sonnet, a man who had once ruled a huge empire is nothing more than a shattered statue lying in the sand. No matter how mighty Walt once was, he and his empire crumbled.

DSJ: Definitely not. This opera is unlike any I've ever sung, and that's what makes it so exciting. It was a brilliant idea by Sung Jin Hong to write an opera based on something so popular like Breaking Bad. The opera is contemporary in every sense of the word: musically, linguistically, and culturally. Sung Jin's music is brooding and darkly nostalgic. I found the melodies really haunting when I first heard them. As I became more familiar with the opera, I found that it's soaring at times and very tender at others. Probably my favorite melody is my vocal line at the end of "The Moment."

ESQ: You're playing Jane, Jesse's ill-fated girlfriend. Now that you've gotten to experience Jane onstage and screen firsthand, what's something you've learned about her as a character that you wouldn't have expected to know or see from the TV show?

DSJ: Well, when I was watching the show, before I began to study the music and themes of the opera, it was easy to sort of pass over Jane's death as nothing more than something sad that happened to Jesse and Jane's father. By singing the role of Jane, it made me realize how important her character actually was in the series, and especially in the development of Walt's character and the dynamic of the relationship between Walt and Jesse. Jane's death was the first time the viewer was called to question Walt's moral fiber. I mean, up until that point, I felt sorry for Walt. I thought he was a good person. Then, when we saw him intentionally let Jane die, that's when things really took a turn in the series and we got a peek into the monster that Walt would later become. Jane's death was the point at which the viewer stopped empathizing with Walt.

ESQ: What's something about the opera that will surprise devoted Breaking Bad viewers?

DSJ: I think what surprised me the most was how concentrated the opera is. Sung Jin's ability to capture the themes and the characters of Breaking Bad in such a short production may surprise people... I mean, the opera is by no means a literal adaptation of the TV show. Sung Jin's music does an amazing job of really capturing the feeling and Greek themes of Breaking Bad.

ESQ: Was there a moment in Breaking Bad that you hoped would make the cut for the opera, but didn't?

DSJ: There wasn't a specific moment I had hoped would make the cut, but I'm really glad there's no Tuco. He freaks me out.

ESQ: Where does the biggest challenge lie when it comes to flipping it around and making opera accessible to Breaking Bad fans?

DSJ: I think for some audiences, making opera accessible means the operas themselves must be shorter in length, the subject has to be relevant, and to steal your wording from your earlier question, opera has to shed the image of a woman wearing braids and a Viking hat. I think there is a need for operas to be 2014 scandalous, not 18th-century scandalous, while never ever sacrificing musical integrity.